YOU’VE PROBABLY never heard of the Jupiter-8, JX-3P and Juno-106, but if you listened to the radio at any point in the ’80s, you’re familiar with their sound. These analog synthesizers appear on countless hits: The anthemic opening to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” was played on a Jupiter-8, while “Axel F” (the globally pervasive instrumental theme to “Beverly Hills Cop”) featured a Jupiter-8 on melody and a JX-3P on the chord stabs.

Despite their hit-making prowess, these instruments were discontinued decades ago to make way for newer digital models. But a few weeks ago, this ’80s power trio returned with the release of the Roland Boutique series. The line consists of three sound modules—the JP-08, JX-03 and JU-06—each of which packs all the tones and controls of the originals into a compact, desktop-friendly form. The line also includes a two-octave MIDI keyboard, called the K-25m, that the modules snap neatly into to create a ready-to-go instrument for Depeche Mode cover bands everywhere.

Unlike their analog precursors, which were known for going in and out of tune with swings in room temperature, these digital iterations eschew oscillators and other capricious components. Instead, they use computer modeling to reconstruct the infinite number of sounds that could be created on the original instruments.

Although the control panels are filled with sliders and knobs labeled with esoteric abbreviations (DCO, VCF, ENV), you don’t have to know what they mean to create Devo-worthy tones. On the JU-06 (the easiest of the three to master), we produced wobbly space-age voicings by cranking up the LFO Rate slider, while playing with the envelope controls morphed the sound into more of a “wah.” Just as fun, you can change the timbre of a note as it’s playing by riding the controls. Touchpads on the side (the analog instruments had joysticks) make it easy to pull off pitch bends.

Each sound module in the Boutique series has a built-in speaker and can be powered by 4 AA batteries or via USB. So really there’s no excuse not to get your ’80s groove on. $299 for the JX-03 and JU-06, $399 for the JP-08 and $99 for the K25-m, rolandus.com